The Lifestyle of a Worshipper
Out of this world worship?
(Alien Adventures pt.1)
Skit
1) We are aliens or strangers to this earth.
1 Peter 2:9-12 (NASB95) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
We are going to look at some paradoxes that face us as believers in Jesus.
- A paradox is something that appears to be false but, is true-
Examples:
Jumbo shrimp
Nobody goes to that restaurant, because it is too crowded.
Can a man drown in the fountain of eternal life?
If the temperature this morning is 0 degrees and the Weather Channel says, "it will be twice as cold tomorrow,".... What will the temperature be?
What happens if you are in a car going the speed of light and you turn your headlights on?
· “We are of this world, yet we are not of this world” now that is a Paradox
2) What is worship?
Psalm 137:4 (NASB95) How can we sing the Lord’s song In a foreign land?
a) What worship is not- A music style, instruments types, or singing, although most would equate those as component or elements of worship. Thus, we get factions labeled as “The worship wars.”
(Read 1773 letter here)
Worship is defined as: worth ship= bowing before God, Praise is a triumphant war cry
A.W. Tozer: What is worship? Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven..
The party on June 3, 2006, was for Michael Emmanuel, Jr. It was his sixth birthday, and friends and family were celebrating at the local Chuck E. Cheese in Boca Raton, Florida.
The party itself went just fine. The problem came when it was over. All the children and adults climbed into three different vehicles and headed home. Everyone, that is, except Michael.
Apparently, the 6-year-old returned to the play area, and when the party-goers departed, he was left behind. Employees found Michael wandering around the restaurant at 10 p.m. and called the police.
Michael's mother had assumed that her son was staying with his grandmother, and didn't even realize he was missing until the next morning. Unfortunately for Michael (and his mother), it is possible to have a joyful celebration and still forget the guest of honor.
· We can worship God by:
Psa. 47:1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph.
Psalm 149:1-3 (NET) Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song! Praise him in the assembly of the godly! 2 Let Israel rejoice in their Creator! Let the people of Zion delight in their king! 3 Let them praise his name with dancing! Let them sing praises to him to the accompaniment of the tambourine and harp!
Psa. 134:2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord
Heb.13:15Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name
Psa. 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker:
b) Worship is not about the externals.
· How do you worship without words, without the capability of singing?
Bill Mann, who has one of the great singing voices in the Christian church in this nation. I remember some years ago he told about the most special concert in his life. It was after the concert was over and he returned to his dressing room. Waiting for him there was a woman who was blind, deaf, and mute. Through the lady who was with her, she asked if he would sing for her the last song he sang in the concert. "Surely," he said.
And standing only five inches from his face--and placing her fingers on his lips and on his vocal cords, he sang again, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" As he finished singing, a tear trickled down the face of Helen Keller. Indistinctly, she said, as the words were repeated by the lady with her, "I was there!"
"Deaf, blind, mute from birth?" you say. "Isn't that too much for one individual to bear?"
No, as a matter of fact, of all the women in this nation there was probably no contemporary who gave others more insight into the meaning of suffering than Helen Keller--or more insight into the love of God.
Richard Rolles 13th century.
c) Worship is a lifestyle- It is a way of life, standard of living, a routine, everyday life. Therefore, how do we make worship an integral and normative aspect of our daily existence?
There are 3 dynamics of worship in the existence of the believer: uninterrupted, relational, and the ordinary
3) Lifestyle worship is an uninterrupted way of life.-
Gandhi once observed, ''One man cannot do right in one department of life while he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.''
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- Worship the Lord on Sunday, live like the devil on Monday.
a) Praise is intended to be continual – Attitude of life
Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Therefore it is not directed or dictated by circumstance. Spiritual brats- pout when they don’t get their way.
b) Praise leads to prayer
Luke 11:1-2 (NET) Now Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 So he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, may your name be honored; may your kingdom come.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing;
Break the Dr Jekyll pattern in your life by:
a) Planned periods of worship
b) Impromptu times of worship
c) Consistency - breaking the pattern of “I only worship at church attitude” and opening up to a continual acknowledgement of God’s presence in your life.
Isabel at 3 years old, “Dad, stop Close your eyes, Listen, and Go”
Ruth Myers in her book “Make Time for Prayer” and “Pray Anytime, Anywhere” in Pray: How to Be Effective in Prayer, by Warren Myers with Ruth Myers (NavPress, 1984). Talks about:
· Arrow prayers – Neh. Prayed while in the court, prayed when Sanballat attacked. They where prayers at the sight and time of the incident.
Another help is to formulate a basic prayer that becomes our special arrow prayer for the present period of our life, a prayer that we can use repeatedly to turn our hearts to God. Here are some examples:
(1) Lord, I choose to be joyful and confident right now, because Christ is my life and You are in control of my circumstances.
(2) I can do all things through Christ who infuses inner strength into me.*
(3) The Lord God omnipotent reigns, in His universe and in me. Hallelujah!
By praying anytime, anywhere, we allow God to be our steady companion. Prayer should become the key of the morning as we get out of bed, the bolt at night as we fall asleep, and the breath of our in-between hours.
Therefore by choosing to worship God at all times, our worship leads to prayer which leads to a continual pattern of being in the Spirit.
4) The lifestyle of worship is relational
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
A primitive root of Dwelt is Tabernacled – is to pitch a tent or camp with a person.
In our relationship with Jesus, He wants to pitch tent with us.
Exodus 33:11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
· God’s receptive ear (the way His Spirit operates) motivates me to pray for friends and acquaintances who flash to mind though I may not have seen them for years. Are they still alive? Have they ever trusted Christ? Are they walking in victory? Do they have special needs? Assuming they are still living, I offer a brief prayer for their salvation or their spiritual progress. I pray on the spot wherever I am, for the flash of remembrance if quickly forgotten.
· Learning to pray about what comes to mind during the day helps develop the habit of “praying without ceasing”, as we’re told to do in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Sometimes a prayer is only a few seconds long. At other times we start with one brief request, and the Lord leads us on to pray for a number of things.
· Think of odd moments of the day when you could engage in brief prayers; for example, standing in line, walking between classes, riding in an elevator, or waiting for an appointment. Decide also on specific acts that will remind you to pray: leaving the house, beginning a new task, sealing a letter, or washing dishes.
5) Lifestyle worship is found in the ordinary.
Naturally supernatural
Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
3 dynamics of spirit relationship:
a) We are sons – family- What kind of father does not talk with his sons?
b) We have His spirit in our hearts- John 16:13 (NASB95) “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
c) Our spirits cry for the father- worship
Therefore:
· Worship is much more than music, instruments, and song style.
· Worship is a lifestyle
· Put a value on your time with God.
· Listen and pray at all times
· Learn to pray what comes to mind: worship is in the ordinary, the relational
· Live a life as a 24/7 worshipper
When we come together on Sundays we get the chance to celebrate Jesus together.
“Lou Engle” tells of one of his kids who was a Box-boy. He was invited to a pizza party at his youth group, he had no $ to go and was bummed out since everyone else was going to be there, he prayed for the Lord to provide. He gets a page call from his boss, can he come up front and help a lady with groceries to her car that is in the parking lot. He meets the lady, picks up the groceries, and puts them into the car. The lady hands him exactly the $ needed for the pizza party. He calls his boss to thank him for the call. His boss denies it, he looks at the registrar tape and there’s no record of the purchase, he looks at the surveillance tape and there is no lady on the tape.
A few years ago, Chris and I stopped at the Waffle House, because we had this craving for waffles (she may have been pregnant at the time). The interesting thing about the Waffle House is that they don’t serve waffles. I mean, they have one plate which features waffles. But it’s mostly just burgers and fries. If you’re looking for a tasty Belgian waffle or a waffle smothered in fresh strawberries or even a waffle cone, you better go somewhere else. Apparently the Waffle house has forgotten what they are all about. Have we forgotten what we’re all about? Have we forgotten how different our Savior is?